School governors forced to declare nationality to Government

Ministers have been accused of turning schools into “Border Control” after it emerged governors are being forced to declare their nationality to a Government register set up in the wake of the “Trojan Horse” scandal.

Concerns have been raised as to how the information about governors’ nationalities will be used, given the register was created in response to allegations that schools in Birmingham were being taken over by hardline Muslim groups.

It has led to fears that the details are being collected as part of a crackdown on illegal migrants and the Government’s efforts to step up its national security measures.

‘Shameful’

The policy affects the estimated 300,000 unpaid volunteers who make up England’s school governing bodies. Civil liberty campaigners have branded the move as “shameful”.

The news comes after reports in December revealed that the Department for Education was gathering and sharing information about pupils’ nationalities with the Home Office in a bid to weed out illegal migrants.

Personal details of more than 1,500 pupils were handed over to the Home Office in order to “create a hostile environment” in schools for illegal migrants.

But it has since emerged that as of last September, the nationality of every member of a school governing body is being collected to help the Government “identify specific individuals”.

The decision to establish the register came in direct response to the Trojan Horse scandal in an effort to give more “transparency” for parents and the wider community.

‘Racist’

Labour’s shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said the collection of nationalities was both “intrusive and unnecessary”.

“What determines whether a governor is suitable or not to serve a school? Is it their nationality? What are they looking for that would be revealed by a governor’s nationality? This is verging on a racist trawl of the nationalities of governors. I can see no justification for it,” Ms Rayner said.

Civil rights group Liberty said the Government was determined to turn schools into a “border control force”.

Bella Sankey, Liberty’s Director of Policy said: “There’s no reason for the Government to collect this data on school governors other than to stoke fear and discrimination in our communities. The DfE must urgently explain itself and end its obsession with building borders at the school gates.”

In 2015, education officials were asked to “toughen up” requirements for schools to publish the identities of their governors, as well as to create a centrally held register of governors in the aftermath of Trojan Horse.

‘Extremist views’

An investigation carried out by the former counterterrorism chief Peter Clarke into the Trojan Horse affair identified “a number of people, associated with each other and in positions of influence in schools and governing bodies, who espouse, endorse or fail to challenge extremist views”.

But Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governors Association, said the government needed to come clean over why it was collecting governors’ nationalities.

“They need to explain what this is being done for,” Ms Knights said. “We have been asking for some time what the intentions are behind this and they still have not told us.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “Knowing who is working in our schools allows us to build a clearer picture of the education system, and helps promote transparency. We take privacy extremely seriously and access to sensitive data is strictly controlled. Data on nationality is for internal use by the Department for Education, and is not made available publicly.”

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